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A maskil of Asaf: Listen, my people, to my teaching; turn your ears to the words from my mouth.
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I will speak to you in parables and explain mysteries from days of old.
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The things which we have heard and known, and which our fathers told us
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we will not hide from their descendants; we will tell the generation to come the praises of ADONAI and his strength, the wonders that he has performed.
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He raised up a testimony in Ya'akov and established a Torah in Isra'el. He commanded our ancestors to make this known to their children,
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so that the next generation would know it, the children not yet born, who would themselves arise and tell their own children,
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who could then put their confidence in God, not forgetting God's deeds, but obeying his mitzvot.
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Then they would not be like their ancestors, a stubborn, rebellious generation, a generation with unprepared hearts, with spirits unfaithful to God.
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The people of Efrayim, though armed with bows and arrows, turned their backs on the day of battle.
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They did not keep the covenant of God and refused to live by his Torah.
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They forgot what he had done, his wonders which he had shown them.
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He had done wonderful things in the presence of their ancestors in the land of Egypt, in the region of Tzo'an.
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He split the sea and made them pass through, he made the waters stand up like a wall.
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He also led them by day with a cloud and all night long with light from a fire.
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He broke apart the rocks in the desert and let them drink as if from boundless depths;
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yes, he brought streams out of the rock, making the water flow down like rivers.
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Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling in the wilderness against the Most High;
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in their hearts they tested God by demanding food that would satisfy their cravings.
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Yes, they spoke against God by asking, "Can God spread a table in the desert?
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True, he struck the rock, and water gushed out, until the vadis overflowed; but what about bread? Can he give that? Can he provide meat for his people?"
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Therefore, when ADONAI heard, he was angry; fire blazed up against Ya'akov; his anger mounted against Isra'el;
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because they had no faith in God, no trust in his power to save.
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So he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven.
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He rained down man on them as food; he gave them grain from heaven -
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mortals ate the bread of angels; he provided for them to the full.
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He stirred up the east wind in heaven, brought on the south wind by his power,
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and rained down meat on them like dust, birds flying thick as the sand on the seashore.
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He let them fall in the middle of their camp, all around their tents.
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So they ate till they were satisfied; he gave them what they craved.
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They were still fulfilling their craving, the food was still in their mouths,
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when the anger of God rose up against them and slaughtered their strongest men, laying low the young men of Isra'el.
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Still, they kept on sinning and put no faith in his wonders.
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Therefore, he ended their days in futility and their years in terror.